The Bass the River and Sheila Mant By

“The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” By W. D. Wetherell

SETTING • Summer • New England Town • River • Provides the backdrop for the story to take place

CONFLICT 1. Physical: the narrator struggles with the bass 2. Internal: the narrator struggles between his desire to catch the biggest bass in his life and his desire to impress Sheila

CHARACTERS Narrator: 14 yrs. old at the story’s beginning, loved fishing for largemouth bass, has a crush on Sheila Mant, spends his time trying to get up enough courage to ask Sheila for a date n Sheila Mant: 17 yrs. old, family is renting the cottage next to his family’s, doesn’t know the narrator exists, talks constantly of older college boys, upper class n

Characterization Methods n Narrator’s actions n Narrator’s thoughts n Speech of both characters n Physical appearance of Sheila

PLOT n BASIC SITUATION (Exposition) Describes the setting and narrator’s obsession with Sheila (Introduces the internal conflict) n Describes Sheila and her suitors n Asks Sheila to a dance n Takes his canoe and fishing rod n n COMPLICATIONS (Rising Action) n Narrator desperately tries to conceal the rod with the big bass as Sheila chatters away, having absolutely no idea what is going on

PLOT (cont. ) n CLIMAX n The narrator cuts the line n FALLING ACTION n Sheila rides home with a college boy n DENOUEMENT n Older, reflective narrator says it was a hard choice and a mistake he has never repeated.

CONFLICT n INTERNAL Narrator struggles with his courage to ask Sheila to the dance n He struggles between his desire to catch the bass and his desire for Sheila n n ELEMENTAL (External) Narrator’s physical struggle with the bass n Narrator’s verbal struggle to keep Sheila ignorant of the bass n

POINT OF VIEW n First Person Narrator n. The story is told through the thoughts, feelings, and remembrances of an adult main character.

THEME n All the concern about hiding something to prevent someone from looking at him in a negative way n Teenagers’ conflict between being true to themselves and trying to be attractive to others

OTHER ELEMENTS Dramatic Irony – when the reader is aware of something that one of the characters in the story is not n Page 39, col. A, par. 1 n